1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to storage or memory in a processor. More specifically, the present invention relates to a register file storage for a multiprogramming processor including structures and techniques for handling context switching.
2. Description of the Related Art
One technique for improving the performance of processors is parallel execution of multiple instructions to allow the instruction execution rate to exceed the clock rate. Various types of parallel processors have been developed including Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) processors that use multiple, independent functional units to execute multiple instructions in parallel. VLIW processors package multiple operations into one very long instruction, the multiple operations being determined by sub-instructions that are applied to the independent functional units.
The multiple functional units are kept busy by maintaining a code sequence with sufficient operations to keep instructions scheduled. A VLIW processor often uses a technique called trace scheduling to maintain scheduling efficiency by unrolling loops and scheduling code across basic function blocks. Trace scheduling also improves efficiency by allowing instructions to move across branch points.
A register file with a large number of registers is often used to increase performance of a VLIW processor. A VLIW processor is typically implemented as a deeply pipelined engine with an "in-order" execution model. To attain a high performance a large number of registers is utilized so that the multiple functional units are busy as often as possible.
A large register file has many advantages but also has several drawbacks. For example, as the number of registers that are directly addressable is increased, the number of bits used in the instruction also increases. For a rich instruction set architecture with, for example, four register specifiers, an additional bit for a register specifier effectively costs four bits in the instruction (one bit per register specifier). Also, a register file with many registers occupies a large area. Furthermore, a register file with many registers may create critical timing paths and therefore limit the cycle time of the processor.
Another disadvantage of a large register file relates to the handling of registers during context switching of a multiprogrammed processor. A multiprogrammed processor is executable with several processes sharing the processing units concurrently. In any given clock cycle, only a single process has instructions executing on the processing units. The multiple processes execute concurrently by timesharing both the processing units and the memory, including the register file. When the context of the processor switches, the internal state of the processor, including all state information for an executing first process, is saved into a memory, and then state information for a saved second process is restored into an executing state. A processor with a large register file incurs a large overhead during context switching since the values for the first process that are held in a large number of registers are shifted from the register file to a context storage, followed by shifting of values for the second process from a context storage to the register file. The overhead of context switching reduces the time during which the processor executes instructions, reducing the efficiency of the processor.
What is needed is a technique and structure that improve the efficiency of context switching in a multiprogrammed processor that has a large register file.